Saturday, November 22, 2014

Dublin Made Me

Today, St. Cecilia's Day, is the birthday of poet, dramatist and lawyer Donagh McDonagh (1912-1968), son of Thomas McDonagh and Muriel Gifford.

Having a sister makes you happier

Research conducted by the University of Ulster suggests that having at least one female sibling made both young men and women more able to communicate effectively and maintain positive emotions. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/signs-youre-a-happy-perso_n_4618461.html

Monday, November 10, 2014

Belonging

It's turning into a wet and windy winter and Belong is settling into it's release in Ireland and the UK. There's been some lovely airplay and a beautiful review today from UK music blogger http://dancingaboutarchitecture.info. In the December issue of Irish Music Magazine, Eileen McCabe asks me some lovely questions for our interview about the making of 'Belong'...

Monday, November 3, 2014

Taylor Swiftly removes her music from Spotify

I was delighted to read in the New York Times today that Taylor Swift has instructed Spotify to remove her music from its service. Spotify responded: “We hope she’ll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone". I wonder when they intend to start building an economic model that will actually benefit the content creators, and I recommend they consult with Jaron Lanier and Lewis Hyde. Here's an interesting 2009 article about how Spotify really works: http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2009/aug/17/major-labels-spotify. Perhaps it's time to start shopping for the Taylor Swift guitar my daughter has been asking me for...

'On the Bridge to Williamsburg'

Well the winter is finally starting to set in on this part of the northern hemisphere so here's a reminder of warm New York days in this video of Declan O'Rourke and I strolling on the Williamsburg Bridge singing our duet about it. The album 'Belong', which opens with this song, has just been released in Ireland and the UK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyWibHDreWc